"Owen Duffy" wrote in message
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Registered User wrote in
:

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I doubt a noticeable percentage of amateurs use wire antennas with a
balanced feed for VHF in 2010. The antenna being considered isn't
commonly used so a common approach to matching might not provide the
most appropriate solution.

The problem is Fritz, that the common HF technique of operating the
transmission line at high VSWR and transforming the impedance to that
which suits the transmitter at the transmitter is less appropriate at VHF
due to increased transmission line loss.

At 2m and above, the technique used more often is to use low loss lines
operated at low VSWR, save short sections that might form an impedance
transformation function.

That is not to say it can't be done other ways.

Omni directional horizontal antennas aren't very popular on 2m except for
the odd beacon and mobile station, full wave loops aren't very often the
choice in that case anyway. Nevertheless, the project is a vehicle for
learning.

Owen

I think you have hit on the solution. For VHF and above the antennas are
usually resonant and the bandwidth is small enough you can match the antenna
at one frequency and the swr will be low across the band. There has been an
improvement in the coax over the years also. The 9913/LMR400 types have
about half the loss at vhf and above as the older rg-8 type.

While it is hard to put up, the G-line may be something to think about at
450 and above if one does want to use something other than coax/hardline.

Most ssb/weak signal stations operate horizontal on vhf. While you may be
able to have some fun with a small antenna, a 5 element or more beam will
surely help. I did make a contact of several hundred miles on 432 with a
1/4 wave vertical on ssb one time, but that was a rare condition. My
rotator for the beam was locked up and the beam was in the wrong direction.
Just tried the vertical for fun and it did make a couple of contacts.